Gujarat court orders FIR against cops, cow vigilante for false case against cattle owner

Godhra, Dec 4 (PTI) A court in Gujarat's Godhra town has ordered registration of an FIR against three policemen and two others including a cow vigilante for trying to implicate two men in a false case of transporting cattle for illegal slaughter.

Additional Sessions Judge Parvezahemad Malaviya in his order on Tuesday acquitted cattle owner Ilyas Daval and driver Nazir Malek, holding that the prosecution could not produce even "a bit of evidence" to show that they were transporting animals for slaughter.

A First Information Report should be registered against head constables Ramesh Narvatsinh and Sankarsinh Sajjansinh, police sub-inspector M S Munia and panch witnesses Margesh Soni and Darshan Soni under section 248 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita "for instituting false criminal proceedings", said the court.

The court also directed the Superintendent of Police to initiate departmental proceedings against the police officials.

The accused, now acquitted, were at liberty to initiate separate proceedings against the state government, police officials and witnesses for compensation, it added.

Malek and Daval were accused of transporting a buffalo, a buffalo calf and a jersey cow for slaughter in July 2022. The animals were tied with short ropes and no arrangement was made for fodder during the journey, the police claimed.

An FIR was registered against them under the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, Motor Vehicles Act and Gujarat Police Act.

As per the prosecution, the accused were intercepted on the night of July 31, 2022, by two policemen near Vasapur village. They failed to produce documentary evidence to prove they had bought the cattle legally from nearby Kheda district, the FIR said.

The police called two 'panch witnesses' (persons who act as witnesses during proceedings related to investigation) as the animals and the vehicle were seized.

The accused denied that they were transporting the milch animals for slaughter. The animals were being taken to a cattle fair (where trade of animals is allowed), and the vehicle was checked at a check-post before Godhra and permitted to proceed, the accused said.

Daval said he was a farmer with interest in dairy and cattle trade.

Under the 2017 amendment to the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act, the quantum of punishment for cow smuggling was increased, with a minimum punishment of seven years.

In its judgement, the court noted that one of the panch witnesses (Margesh Soni) was a "gau rakshak" (cow vigilante), and had acted as a police witness in many similar cases.

"Looking to the evidence of all the above police witnesses including the investigating officer, not a bit of evidence has been placed on record which proves that the animals were being transported for the purpose of slaughter," the court said.

The prosecution could not prove that Daval was in the vehicle when the animals were being transported, it said, adding that the investigating officer also violated the provision of the Gujarat Animal Preservation Rules, 1987, by sending the animals to a `panjrapole' (pound for stray cattle) instead of an animal infirmary.

The market value of the animals as shown in police records was very low and no such animal is sold at such a low rate, the court said, stating that the head of the raiding party could have some "malafide intentions" and it raised "huge doubt against the prosecution case." None of the witnesses deposed that the animals were being taken for slaughter, nor could the investigating officer prove that there was a slaughter house nearby or the accused owned any slaughter house, it noted. PTI COR KA KRK